{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sasc-chairman-inhofe-delivers-opening-remarks-at-bicameral-pass-the-gavel-meeting", "SASC Chairman Inhofe Delivers Opening Remarks at Bicameral 'Pass the Gavel' Meeting on Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act", "2020-11-18", "2020", "2020-11", "Republican", "House", "OK", "James Inhofe", "I000024", "www.inhofe.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today delivered opening remarks at the annual \"pass the gavel\" meeting, which is an opportunity for members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees to meet andwork together to resolve differences between the House and\r\nSenate versions of the defense authorization bill. Each year, the chairmanship of the NDAA conference\r\ncommittee alternates between the two chambers. This year, House Armed Services\r\nCommittee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) passed the gavel to Inhofe, who is chairing the conference\r\nnegotiations. As Prepared for Delivery:Thank\r\nyou, Chairman Smith, and thank you all for being here today. I am looking\r\nforward to beginning the conference process with the traditional Pass the\r\nGavel meeting.This\r\nprocess looks a little different from normal, but we still share the same goal:\r\nFinishing the Conference Report for the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense\r\nAuthorization Act. If\r\neverything goes smoothly, this will be the 60thyear Congress has\r\npassed an NDAA. It's pretty much the only thing around here with that kind of\r\ntrack record. That's\r\nbecause we all know how important this bill is. It's the most important bill\r\nwe'll consider all year, and we all take this responsibility, given to us by this\r\nlittle old document no one reads anymore, the Constitution, very seriously. Caring\r\nfor our troops and providing for the common defense  these are bipartisan\r\npriorities. On\r\nthe Senate side, Senator Reed and I shared a commitment to upholding this\r\nbipartisan spirit and making this a member-led bill. In\r\nour committee markup, we considered nearly 400 amendments, and adopted over 229\r\nof those. They were evenly split, Democrat and Republican, and the committee\r\nadvanced the bill by a vote of 25-2. On the floor, we had a great process as well. We received another 800-plus\r\namendments, with 145 amendments adopted, again on a bipartisan basis. The final\r\nvote reflected this bipartisanship  86 to 14. To get here, we have worked in a transparent, bipartisan process, and I expect\r\nthat to continue with our conference proceedings. I\r\nlook forward to hearing from you all today as we work to this goal. This is an\r\nimportant milestone in the annual conference process. So far, we've been making great progress. We do have some outstanding\r\nissues to resolve still and some choices to make, but I'm optimistic we'll be\r\nable to get something on the floor in short order. With\r\nhard work and compromise, we will send the president an NDAA to sign  for the\r\n60thyear in a row. That's\r\nnot the only reason this is a milestone bill. This NDAA also marks the HASC Ranking\r\nMember's final NDAA before he retires. Congressman\r\nThornberry, we thank you for your service and for your unwavering dedication to\r\nour troops, and I'm proud to honor you by naming this bill the William M. (Mac)\r\nThornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sasc-chairman-inhofe-delivers-opening-remarks-at-bicameral-pass-the-gavel-meeting"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4404579997062683, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}